14th April 2015 - Topsham
Topsham Rec continues to throw up these little delights; so far this year my local gull highlights have been an occasional Med Gull and a couple of these.
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| Presumed hybrid gull - 14/4/2015 - Topsham |
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| Presumed hybrid gull - 14/4/2015 - Topsham |
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| Presumed hybrid gull - 14/4/2015 - Topsham |
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| Presumed hybrid gull - 14/4/2015 - Topsham |
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| Presumed hybrid gull - 14/4/2015 - Topsham |
I never really expected it to be a genuine
michahellis, getting a little cynical in my dotage perhaps, but it looked a little small and dainty alongside a Herring Gull. It was obviously darker mantled and its leg colour appeared to have a definite yellow component but, as usual, the primary pattern gave the game away. Too much black on P10 and P9 (reaching primary coverts), and too little on P5 (only a broken band); just right for Lesser Black-backed though. After a closer look, the legs weren't that yellow, just yellowish. Could it have been passed off as a Yellow-legged?
This isn't my first of the year, I've seen this individual, with its oddly pale outer primaries, a few times over the last month.
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| Presumed hybrid gull - 27/3/2015 - Topsham |
The legs looked yellower in the field than in the photos.
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| Presumed hybrid gull - 2/4/2015 - Topsham |
P8 pale, not solidly black, on both wings. An adult last year - same bird? - showed a similar mark on one wing only.
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| Presumed hybrid gull - 2/4/2015 - Topsham |
Legs look more pink now.
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| Presumed hybrid gull - 2/4/2015 - Topsham |
You gotta take your pleasures where you can.
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